NHS opens specialist clubbing drugs clinic in treatment

To help baffled GP's who lack the knowledge to help their patients the NHS in London has opened a new clinic specialising in the treatment of the former legal high clubbing drugs like mephedrone, GHB and Ketamine which are believed to become ever more popular at the expensive of traditional recreational drugs like Cocaine and Heroin which traditional centres have been used to treating.

"Bowden-Jones said those who take club drugs tend to be younger, employed and sometimes affluent. They are often in relationships and don't necessarily identify themselves as addicts.".

Apparently there have been over 70 referrals to the new "Legal Highs" Centre before it had even opened its doors.

In our opinion spending money on treatment certainly makes much more sense than spending vast amounts catching people and locking them up. A good progress move.

Global "experts" disagree on whether recreational drugs use is up or down

It seems the UN and the Global Commission on Drug policy disagree on whether drug use is up or down and therefore whether the global war on drugs should end. Perhaps they could save all the money being spent on useless reports and do something more useful instead with the cash? Drug addiction help for the minority of drug users who need it perhaps... the story is below

Celebrity campaign backing drug legalisation was based on 'flawed' figures, says UN

It won the support of celebrities and dignitaries with its call for drugs to be decriminalised.
But a highly influential report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy used incorrect figures, it was revealed yesterday. The group, headed by major names including former UN chief Kofi Annan and Sir Richard Branson, published a study claiming that drug use around the world has soared over the past decade.

Its call for an end to the war on drugs was taken up by celebrities including Dame Judi Dench, Julie Christie and Sting. Last weekend, Liberal Democrat leaders also cited it as their conference demanded measures to make drug possession legal in Britain.

However, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said yesterday that the claims were based on ‘flawed methodology’ and were ‘not correct’. Far from increasing at a rapid rate, worldwide use of heroin and cocaine has remained stable and cannabis use is likely to have dropped, it argued.

The Global Commission said that between 1998 and 2008, worldwide use of heroin and other opiates went up by a third, cocaine use by more than a quarter, and cannabis use by 8.5 per cent.
The Commission is a self-appointed body whose members include Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, former presidents of Colombia and Mexico, and several once highly-placed U.S. politicians such as former Secretary of State George Shultz.
Its report, published in June, said the war on drugs should be abandoned and illegal drugs should be decriminalised and regulated.

But errors behind it were exposed by researcher Kathy Gyngell of the centre-right Centre for Policy Studies think-tank. Mrs Gyngell asked UNODC to analyse the figures the Commission provided.

It found that the Commission’s figures – unsourced in its report – had been based on a misreading of statistics published by the UN agency.
Mrs Gyngell said: ‘Our worst fears as to the provenance and reliability of the Global Commission’s figures have been confirmed. The Commission’s figures are not just overblown, they are contrived and misleading.’

Banned drugs deaths fall in the last years according to government figures.

The number of drug-related deaths in England and Wales has fallen slightly, according to the latest government figures. Those who had died specifically from the misuse of banned drugs, with 1,876 in 2009 compared with 1,784 in 2010.

The statistics show opiates were the substances most commonly associated with drug deaths last year with 791 people dying from heroin or morphine poisoning.

Although men made up 70% of drug-related deaths, the 2010 figures show a 10% decrease in male fatalities and a corresponding rise of 10% in female deaths.

Deadly batch of Ecstasy warning

It seems there is another batch of potential deadly ecstasy around. Following a batch last month that caused harm by being far stronger than is now normal for MDMA based drugs causing people to overdose when combining taking large numbers of ecstasy and other drugs and alcohol. This month Police have warned of a potentially fatal batch of MDMA in circulation in the UK after two clubbers in London were taken ill.

The problem with these warnings is that act as an attempt to blanket say, don't take drugs. They don't really help people who do want to use them and will use them. They do not protect you unless you abstain completely which is unlikely in many cases. If authorities really did care about peoples safety then legalisation and government prescribed sale and taxation is the way to go.

But here is the story.....

According to police in Islington, London, two clubbers were taken ill this weekend after taking the drug and are currently in a critical condition in hospital.

Detective Superintendent Adrian Usher from Islington Borough said, “All drug taking involves an element of risk. Users need to be aware that a potentially fatal batch of ecstasy is out there and understand the devastating effect it can have on their health.”

The batch is expected to have spread throughout London and police are warning clubbers to take extra care. Call Islington CID on 020 7421 0196 if you have any useful information

Off topic but we love D/R/U/G/S and I think you may to?

No not the illegal substance but a fresh and up and coming live dance music performer D/R/U/G/S is from Manchester and fuses performance, punk and rave and a lot of playing with buttons on stage.

We think you will like him, we do...

Drug treatment policy doomed to failure in the UK

Its reported on the BBC today that the way we treat drug addicts is doomed to failure. We apparently spend an amazing £3.6 billion on handing out methadone and giving benefits to drug users instead of spending the money on rehabilitation. Its clear as drug use and imprisonment of drug users continues the policy is not working.

"The state is subsidising people to be any number of years on methadone, which has turned out not to be a cheap option and will only subsidise the tiniest proportion - 2% - to go into a rehabilitation unit that would actually free them from dependency and allow them to live their life."

Apparently there is a new policy coming that will give bribes to organisation who get people back to work but I don't see how this will work. Will these people be fit to work? Its clear focusing effort away from all drugs including recreational use of say ecstacy and onto rehabiliation of people using heroin would massively benefit the country. Let alone free up huge amount of Police time and resources.

The War on Drugs, Is it as Pointless as The majority think?

The War on drugs is No nearer sorting out the issues that Politicians contiune to tell us exists in our country, yet it is still argued that this pointless, money wasting, battle against the consumption of recreational drugs is the only way to control their use.

This article seems to disagree with this view, and its not just the hippies that are arguing for the legalization of drugs any more.

What do we think guys? is this a pointless war or the right way our country should be heading in the future? i know what i think :)

Doherty locked up for drug use and death of friend. Whats the point?

Pete Doherty has been locked up after footage taken by a friend who died of taking drugs was found of him also using crack. Does it makes sense to lock up an addict? As far as I can tell he hurts no one but himself and prison does not seem to cure him. He surely can't be held responsible for the death of his friend, an adult, who presumable was free to decide for herself whether or not to take the drug that killed her...

If the reason for locking someone up was to try to break their habit then that will clearly fail as anyone who watched the recent documentary series following female prisoners in Scotland will know. They seemed to have almost free access to heroin on the inside as they do on the outside. In the mean time the nations tax payers pay to fill our prisons at considerable cost and rapists and murders get released early so that we can accommodate then. Shameful

Apparently all you need to get high now is your mobile phone??

A new Application has been released for smart phones claiming that it is the new drug for the rave scene.

A British hypnotherapist has claimed to have created an App that causes you to experience a high due to Hypnosis.

“Get "High" without drugs - hypnosis session App helps former drug users,” the marketing blurb for Hypno High™ declared, “No more drugs needed - just the memory of a "high" is enough to revive it.”

I am Sceptical about this one what do you guys think? love to hear your comments

Drinking Red Bull type drink with alcohol more dangerous

Interesting research published stating the obvious really....

Researchers found that while physical and mental impairment were no different with the combination, the feeling of intoxication was higher. This heady mix could lead to greater risk taking and more chance of causing injury or embarrassment.

Professor Cecille Marczinski and her colleagues randomly assigned 56 college student participants between the ages of 21 and 33, to one of four groups. One received alcohol, the other energy drinks while a third group was given both together and a final group a non-stimulating soft beverage.

"The findings from this study provide concrete laboratory evidence that the mixture of energy drinks with alcohol is riskier than alcohol alone," said Prof Marczinski. "College students need to be aware of the risks of these beverages. Moreover, clinicians who are working with risky drinkers will need to try and steer their clients away from these beverages."The results were published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Cocaine’s Early Death Stroke

Upper middle class young professionals who use cocaine recreationally are responsible for a massive increase in emergency admissions for strokes and heart attacks in Australia, Sydney specialist Dr Gordian Fulde told reporters this week.

The head of emergency services at St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst said high achieving types ‘who think nothing of doing a few lines on a weekend’ were driving the trend which the Sydney Morning Herald said matched the 45% increase in cocaine possession busts between September 2008 and September 2010.

''We have seen young girls - pretty young things aged 17, 18, 19 - who have had strokes because the blood vessels in their heads constrict,'' Dr Fulde told the Herald.

''We see patients with angina, chest pains which radiate up and down the left arm. It makes people feel awful. That's the most common thing we get from cocaine. Often when we test them for heart muscle damage we find they have had a heart attack,” he added. (Sydney Morning Herald:http://www.mailermailer.com/rd?http://bit.ly/fY9pAM )

The Australian doctor’s latest warnings came just as British authorities pledged to take steps to counter ‘the "increasingly common" idea that cocaine is a relatively safe drug’, according to the Guardian. The paper also noted that Britain remains at the top of the European charts for usage, following a 400% increase in 16 to 24 year old users in the last decade.

Discussing drug policy in the same newspaper two days later, however (in an article about boosting happiness), leading columnist Simon Jenkins called again for legalization.

“My advice for the happiness lobby? Start with drugs,” the former Times editor pleaded.

“The greatest misery caused by the state to the greatest number of people in Britain is, I have no doubt, by the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act. It takes a random selection of variably harmful substances and fails to regulate or curb their use, merely criminalising, imprisoning and wrecking the lives of tens of thousands of users, at an enormous personal and public cost,” he explained.

“Every sane politician who deals with this law knows it to be bad. Yet it is not reformed because that would take a degree of political courage, which is another way of saying that the happiness of the many is not allowed to interfere with the contentment of the few – in this case politicians.” (Guardian:http://www.mailermailer.com/rd?http://bit.ly/dYi1zN )

War on drugs failed say heads of MI5, BBC, CPS....you can say that again

According to a new piece in the Telegraph The "war on drugs" has failed and should be abandoned in favour of evidence-based policies that treat addiction as a health problem, according to prominent public figures including former heads of MI5 and the Crown Prosecution Service..... (click the title to read the full story)

Look at the devastation that is caused to whole families by sending so many to prison. Crime is increased. Billions are spent, and now entire countries are destroyed by it (Mexico, Columbian etc). When are we going to wake up and take a more progressive view? Drugs have many downsides as does alcohol but a crime? Surely it should be a personal choice... take away the profit for the criminals and use it to raise taxes and cut prison populations. Okay you may need to build more rehab clinics but my bet is it will work out much cheaper and you will have a happier population around the world...

Young peoples drug use drops 30% over the last 15 years

Apparently drug use amongst young people has dropped by over 30% over the last 15 years.

In the largest ever survey of drug use among British clubbers, published in this month's edition of Mixmag, there were found to be large year-on-year falls in the number of people taking cannabis (by five percentage points), ketamine (10), ecstasy (five) and cocaine (20). The British Crime Survey tends to underestimate drug use (because it does not include people who are homeless, in prison, or living in student accommodation), and these falls are not the first, but they do cement a trend that is now too solid to ignore. In this country at least, for reasons that remain mysterious, drugs seem to be going out of fashion....

Is this due to the decline of electronic music scene/raves/super clubs from the mainstream population? It can't be a coincidence. Generation ecstasy have all grown up and got kids now and the party days are over for most.

Plus lets be honest how many times have you heard people say that they (cocaine/ecstasy)just aren't as good as they used to be. If dealers sell rubbish drugs for lots of money, people eventually wont bother to buy them, they will find something else....The new generation of kids have found legal highs and super weed which is more available and reliable.

Click the title to read the full story or buy a copy of Mixmag this month

Watch our for your heart if you are a cocaine user

Its always been talked about, the risk of taking cocaine causing a heart attack.  Now it official.  0.9% of all heart attacks were caused by cocaine use.   On an individual basis, taking cocaine was shown to raise a person’s risk of having a heart attack 23-fold, according to the  study, led by Dr Tim Nawrot, from Hasselt University in Belgium.

In comparison, air pollution led to a  5 per cent extra risk, but since far more people are exposed to traffic fumes and factory emissions than cocaine, the danger posed by Cocaine use is in reality much higher.

Traffic exposure was blamed for 7.4 per cent of heart attacks, followed by physical exertion with 6.2 per cent.

Overall air pollution triggered between  5 per cent and 7 per cent of heart attacks, while drinking alcohol or coffee accounted for 5 per cent.

Other risk factors included negative emotions (3.9 per cent), anger (3.1 per cent), eating a heavy meal (2.7 per cent), positive emotions (2.4 per cent) and sexual activity (2.2 per cent). Cocaine was to blame for 0.9 per cent of heart attacks, but this was because of limited exposure to the drug among the population.

MDMA ‘Doesn’t Cause Brain Damage'

A new huge US study of the effects of MDMA ‘specifically designed to minimize the methodological flaws in earlier studies . . . found no ominous, concerning risks to cognitive performance’, US scientists announced this week.

Study chief Doctor John Halpern MD said ‘ecstasy users in the new study showed no signs of cognitive impairment attributable to drug use’ adding ‘ecstasy use did not decrease mental ability.’

The drug expert carried out the research for America’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and ‘eliminated several sources of potential error in previous studies’ they explained in a report published in medical journal Addiction.

“As well as the actual pill-poppers, the non-using control group were also apparently "members of the 'rave' subculture,’ the statement said, “And thus repeatedly exposed to sleep and fluid deprivation from all-night dancing - factors that themselves can produce long-lasting cognitive effects".

Instead Doctor Halpern blamed the dangers associated with ecstasy on its illegality and warned that using it currently remains potentially risky.

“Illegally-made pills can contain harmful contaminants,” the Dr pointed out, “There are no warning labels, there is no medical supervision, and in rare cases people are physically harmed and even die from overdosing. It is important for drug-abuse information to be accurate.”

The most notorious inaccurate ecstasy research was published by US ‘scientist’ George Ricaurte in 2002, when he announced that ecstasy users risked developing Parkinson’s Disease from one night of E-fueled raving, as well as a one in five change of death.

His findings were immediately leapt on by ‘Just say no’ zero tolerance campaigners who were far less vocal when six months later he was forced to admit he’d tested the wrong drug- ultra-strong methamphetamine- by mistake.

"I'm surprised that senior researchers could make an error like that," British drug expert Dr John Henry told New Scientist following Ricaurte’s retraction.

"They should have known from the general background of their work that this was extremely unusual,” the Doctor noted.

Every Drug Should be Legal - Stand up comedy fun

Great fun on drugs from this American comic

lol piss take piece on Bob Ainsworth ex Labour Defense ministry

Ainsworth a 'world class LSD fiend'

FORMER defence secretary Bob Ainsworth was today accused of backing the legalisation of drugs so that he can feed his insatiable desire for psychedelic freak-outs.

Ainsworth became defence secretary just so he could get his hands on cheap Afghan smack

Ainsworth, who oversaw drugs policy under Tony Blair, said the war on drugs was unwinnable because, you know, it was his job to think about that kind of stuff.

Sighing heavily, he added: "Do I really have to explain this?

"Okay. I used to work in a big building in London where there were lots of people who knew about drugs and I would have meetings with them and actually listen to all the different things they were saying to me. And that's pretty much it."

But Ainsworth was immediately dismissed by his Tory successors at the Home Office who claimed he was a typical LSD fiend, hungry for his next freaky trip.

Crime prevention minister, James Brokenshire, said: "Look at his moustache and his Woolworths spectacles. He loves drugs.

"In fact I would go so far as to say that his choice of tie demonstrates that he is clearly mashed off his big hippy tits. Probably on funky mushrooms."

He added: "Keep well away from him as he will try and coax you into his camper van and offer to paint swirly patterns on your belly."

Mr Brokenshire then described decriminalisation as a 'simplistic solution that fails to recognise the complexity of the problem' before drifting off the subject and staring at his feet until he suddenly pointed towards the window and screamed 'OH MY GOD, WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?' and ran out of the room.

This is in response to the following article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12005824

God squad come to the Drugs advisory council...?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/25/gp-drugs-advisory-council

Not sure these are the sort of enlightened open minded people that should be getting positions of responsibility advicing others on drugs policy.    Apparently the new GP members is a right wing Christian off anti drugs and anti guy leaning.

He also seems to have no pass history of doing research on drugs or there effects.... so what makes him an expert capable of advising others.

Interesting article on legal highs explaining their origin

Just read an interesting article in Nature about legal highs and their origin.  Well worth taking 5minutes out to give it a look.

Legal High article


Synthetic chemist David Nichols describes how his research on psychedelic compounds has been abused


Fantazia Legal High information

More experts call for legalisation of Cannabis

A leading doctors journal it is reported today in the Telegraph has called for Cannabis to be sold openly in shops along side Tobacco and Alcohol.  The British Medical Journal says that banning the drug is just not working.  It quotes stats that an 18 fold increase in budget for enforcement between 81 and 2002 in the USA had failed to close the market for the drug.  There is no reason to think that the UK is any different.

With tax revenues desperately needed in the UK and cost cutting a must the new government could get a double hit with a cut in policing costs and increase in taxation. Tempting?  I doubt if they would be brave enough, there are to many over 50 voters and not enough under to make it worth the political risk.  However give us another 10 years and another new voting generation.....